Why I believe Craig won: Thomas Høiby on Granath vs. Wright

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Thomas Høiby was back with another video this week in which he explained why he believes Dr. Craig Wright won the Granath vs. Wright case in his hometown of Oslo, Norway.

Dr. Wright won the Satoshi case in Norway

Høiby begins by saying that after reflecting on the case for a while, he’s now definitely on team Bitcoin SV. He also says it’s clear that Dr. Wright won the case “without any doubt.”

Recapping the opposition’s argument, he reminds us that they say Dr. Wright is a liar, a scammer, and a fraud, but he says they didn’t provide much evidence of that in court. They mostly used regurgitated material from the Internet, such as forum posts from Reddit, Bitcoin Talk, and various blog posts.

That said, he does think Granath genuinely believes what he’s saying. He clearly does not believe Dr. Wright is Bitcoin’s inventor. He also says that Dr. Wright doesn’t care who believes him.

For Høiby, the testimony of various witnesses was extremely compelling. They all knew Dr. Wright back in the day and were highly credentialed experts in disparate fields. Many of them didn’t care for Bitcoin, but it’s clear that they held Dr. Wright in high regard.

Høiby says Halvor Manshuas and the rest of Dr. Wright’s legal team did a great job. They broke Bitcoin down into simple terms, using analogies like goldfish bowls and passwords that the judge and other people could relate to.

Why won’t Dr. Wright just sign publicly?

At one point, the judge asked Dr. Wright outright why he doesn’t sign using a private key and end it. He says that Dr. Wright explained his reasoning for doing so (keys are not identity), but also that he now doesn’t have easy access to the keys. 

That stands to reason for someone who has over one million bitcoins, Høiby says. 

“Why would you take the risk of holding onto these keys to show a bunch of whining idiots on the internet that you’re Satoshi?” he asks.

Eventually, the judge accepted his explanation, even though she stated she thinks it’s a much harder path. She didn’t press him on his reasons and accepted them.

The KPMG Report

Høiby explains that the hardest evidence against Dr. Wright was the KPMG report. It revealed a lot of problems with the documents presented in court.

There were many inconsistencies in these documents regarding metadata, fonts, etc. However, there’s no clear explanation for who created the documents, and many of them are old documents from previous cases.

Likewise, BDO’s take on the report showed that it wasn’t that rigorous and had its own problems. It also gave some alternative explanations for why certain inconsistencies could have occurred; fraud is not the only explanation.

“KPMG pointed out a lot of things that were wrong, but they didn’t actually prove anything,” Høiby says.

The attempt to discredit Dr. Wright wasn’t too strong

Høiby then looks at how Granath’s team tried to discredit Dr. Wright. For example, they tried to make up ridiculous stories, such as that he bought one million bitcoins from a Russian exchange without providing any hard proof.

In Høiby’s view, Granath’s legal team got visibly angry and frustrated as the days went on. He describes Granath as having “no chance” of winning the case, saying that their case was, on the whole, weak and lacking in substance.

Questions about Granath

“It’s going to be expensive for Granath, but I don’t feel sorry for him,” Høiby says.

He also has some questions about Granath himself, saying he found him a “little bit shady.” He’s not sure what Granath’s role in all of this was, given that he’s involved with some wealthy players in Norway who invested in BTC.

Watch Granath vs Wright Satoshi Norway Trial Coverage Livestream Recaps